In CRT displays, accelerated electrons collide with phosphors located on the inner side of the front glass to impart energy to the phosphors. This permits the phosphors to emit light, and, in general, red, green, and blue lights outgo on the front side. In liquid crystal displays, the liquid crystal per se does not emit light. Since, however, light is applied from the backside to enhance the visibility of liquid crystal images, on the whole of the display, light is emitted toward the front.
When the display is used in a room, light from lighting equipment, such as a fluorescent lamp, enters the surface of the display and is reflected from the display surface. This causes glaring of the display screen or reflection of a fluorescent lamp on the display screen, making it difficult to perceive letters and the like displayed on the screen.
The disposition of an antiglare film, having a light diffusing layer formed by coating a silica-containing resin coating composition onto a transparent substrate film, on the front of the display to diffuse external light causative of glare, and consequently to alleviate the glare of the display screen, has been already carried out in the art.
Conventional antiglare films include one wherein concaves and convexes have been formed on the surface of a light diffusing layer through the agglomeration of particles of agglomerative silica or the like, one wherein resin beads having a larger particle diameter than the thickness of the coating have been added to impart concaves and convexes on the surface of the coating, and one wherein an embossing film having concaves and convexes on its surface had been laminated onto the surface of an unsolidified coating to transfer the shape of concaves and convexes onto the surface of the coating followed by the separation of the embossing film.
All the above conventional antiglare films have light diffusing properties, a certain level of antiglare effect, and, in addition, by virtue of the thin film form, can be easily applied to displays.
However, when light emitted from the display toward the front is passed, through the antiglare film, shining called “scintillation” occurs on the film surface, disadvantageously posing a problem of deteriorated visibility of displayed images.
The following properties are important for an antiglare film which, in use, is disposed on the front of a display: (1) high level of anti-scintillation properties; (2) high image sharpness; (3) high light transmittance (=total light transmittance); and (4) high antiglare properties derived from light diffusing properties (=high level of capability of preventing the reflection of external light from a fluorescent lamp or the like (external light reflection preventive properties)). None of the conventional antiglare films simultaneously satisfy all the above property requirements.